Discovering your 'light-bulb moment'

Often referred to as service learning, experiential learning or reflective learning, this educational experience seeks to provide students with not only a way to give back to the community, but to better understand their own strengths and abilities.

Service learning takes students beyond the volunteer experience by providing a self-reflective component, in the form of journal writing, group discussions or presentations, and is quickly catching on as a preferred teaching method for its holistic approach.

A number of Western's faculties and services are beginning to offer more formalized service learning opportunities to students.

"At Western, students are engaged in many types of active learning -- they vary in duration, degree of involvement and reflective learning," says Kathleen Kevany, director at the Centre for New Students.

Some faculty examples of experiential learning include the Representing Homelessness course offered through the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. In addition to the academic study of the issue of homelessness, the course includes participating at local shelters for two hours a week over the semester.

The Faculty of Law has been offering the Pro Bono Students Canada program since 1999, where law student volunteers provide legal services to community agencies in need. In addition, the Richard Ivey School of Business provides consulting assistance to businesses in the London community that could otherwise not afford such services.

Thelma Sumsion, a professor at the School of Occupational Therapy, says that while they do not use the term "service learning" to describe the faculty's outreach efforts, their clinical education component requires that students complete 1,000 hours of field work in an occupational therapy program.

"The benefits to both our students and to Western are that they are good ambassadors for the University. They learn about their chosen profession, ensuring that clients will receive quality service, and continue to take new developments into the field," she says.

According to Amanda Michetti, a student in Brescia University College's Community Development program, "students often experience a lack of connection between classroom learning and their personal lives. Service learning helps students acquire knowledge that is useful in understanding the world."

The program is a degree-module course for sociology students that involves a placement in partnering community agencies, for which students receive a half credit.

"In addition, students have a service learning contract in which they document their learning objectives, the tasks and practices that will help them meet these objectives, and effective evaluation criteria to ensure they are meeting them," says Michetti.

She adds that the reflective piece gives students better self-understanding, positions their actions within a greater community context, and encourages them to look at the underlying issues that necessitate many of the community's outreach services.

Huron University College has been offering the Huron in Honduras program for the last five years. This experiential learning project involves preparatory readings, seminars and language study before a three-week stay in Honduras, where students take part in community development projects and structured group discussions. Projects include building schools, playgrounds, libraries and health centres, improving roads and obtaining clean water supplies.

Wendy Russell, program organizer and a professor of International and Comparative Studies at Huron, is also involved in the Intercordia Canada program in partnership with King's University College.

"Intercordia gives students an opportunity to do a three-month placement and do academic preparation and reflection work to get a full credit," says Russell. Past placements include outreach projects in Belize, the Ukraine and Ecuador.

"Both of these projects engage students in settings where they encounter, directly, the economic hardship that characterizes life for the majority world. They see the power of working together to identify the need for change and trying to make that change," Russell says.

"They often also feel challenges to who they are, how they act, and what they do as a matter of daily life: their role as consumers, as producers of knowledge, as consumers of information in the media. They begin to think about their place and role as a member of a wider world, and think about their responsibilities and their privilege."

Service learning activities have been offered more frequently to students in residence as well.

Stephanie Hayne, residence academic and service learning coordinator at the Division of Housing and Ancillary Services, has been bringing more opportunities to residents, including outreach activities at such organizations as the Memorial Boys and Girls Club, the McCormick Home for seniors and the Merrymount Children's Centre.

Often, students will come back from a day of organized volunteering, and gather together to discuss what they learned about the experience and themselves.

"Service learning explores the ideas and feelings you have. You think about what you did and what you got out of it. But you often go even deeper than that -- if you have a bad experience, what did you learn? Where do you see your talents best used? What is your passion? Do you enjoy working with seniors in a nursing home or with children?" says Hayne.

The Alternative Spring Break program, a program that began at Housing two years ago, offers residents the opportunity to experience service learning in a different locale. Students have helped build affordable housing with Habitat for Humanity in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Jacksonville, Florida.
This year, students have the choice of a Habitat for Humanity project in Florida or helping out at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Response to the projects has been overwhelming. "It's exciting to see that 'light bulb' moment, when participants actually get why they're there and what they're getting out of it," says Hayne. "The experience is very personal and is different for everybody."

For the last three years, Housing has been offering the Volunteer and Service Learning floor in Perth and Saugeen-Maitland halls. On these floors, residents live with others who have a particular interest in volunteer work and participate in organized outreach activities.

According to Monique Aucoin, a resident at Perth Hall, one of the benefits of living on a floor where service learning is promoted is "getting a greater knowledge of the opportunities that exist for students to get involved in a meaningful way."

Aucoin has participated in campus clean-up programs, street connection and food drive programs for London youth, and has helped out at a local soup kitchen.
"Unlike most activities, service learning provides a phenomenal sense of accomplishment and fulfilment that only comes from knowing that you have made a difference in the life of someone else," says Aucoin.

Nashifa Dharshi, also a resident at Perth's volunteer and service learning floor, values the reflective opportunity of the service learning experience.

"It allows you to think about the things that matter to you, and how lucky we are," she says. One event she highlights in particular is the Random Acts of Kindness Week in February, which includes holding a recital and dance for the elderly as well as a multicultural arts and crafts program for a local children's organization.

"The experience makes people more well-rounded, instead of just going to class and experiencing the social aspect of university," says Dharshi.

"By offering service learning opportunities, Western has the potential to produce well-rounded students with valuable experiences from inside and outside the classroom," says Julia Paek, Human Issues council representative at Medway Hall.

This council promotes service learning opportunities involving human rights and diversity issues, as well as activities offered by the University Students' Council. "These opportunities have added to my growth as a person and challenged the way I live my life," says Paek.

While there are many experiential learning opportunities that have taken place over the years, Western is now organizing a campus-wide service learning committee that brings together all of these areas in a more formalized way.

"It's great to have people coming together. It gives us a better understanding of what's going on, how we can all benefit, and where we're headed from here," says Hayne.